YouTube's prayer-dancing video slammed

INDONESIA has asked YouTube to block a video showing high school girls performing Islamic prayers and then dancing to a song by US pop group Maroon 5.

The five girls have been expelled from their senior high school over the video, which has been viewed 300,000 times on the Google-owned video sharing website.

Police said they were considering charging the girls with blasphemy.

"We have cooperation with Google and contents that have the potential to cause religious and ethnic discords are usually dealt with promptly," Information Minister Taifatul Sembiring said.

In the video the girls, wearing school tracksuits, playfully perform an Islamic prayer known as salat, complete with the recitals of Koranic verses and then switch the apparent ritual to dancing to the song One More Time by Maroon 5.

The act, which involves shaking and suggestive hand gestures, was repeated several times in the five-minute video.

"It may seem trivial, but it can have dire consequences," Sembiring said.

The video was posted in March but brought to public attention last week by the school attended by the girls.

Hardline Muslims have called for the girls to be punished.

It was not clear how old the girls were. Police said the girls were not detained because they were minors.

Blasphemy is punishable by up to five years in jail under Indonesian law.

A court in West Sumatra last year sentenced a self-confessed atheist to 30 months in prison for blasphemy after he posted messages on Facebook that were deemed insulting to Islam.

A NOTE ABOUT RELEVANT ADVERTISING: We collect information about the content (including ads) you use across this site and use it to make both advertising and content more relevant to you on our network and other sites.